Bitch Media - language reclamationhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/773/0
enThe H-Word: Relationship Violence and the Racist Implications of the Mythical Pimphttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-h-word-relationship-violence-and-the-racist-implications-of-the-mythical-pimp
<p><img style="float: left; border: 10px solid black; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6052/6378883291_cf72bc167e.jpg" alt="Poster showing women's legs and men standing under a streetlight. Text reads LOST BOYS" width="350" height="250" />Earlier this month the <em>Village Voice</em> made public the findings of <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-11-02/news/lost-boys/">a study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice</a>, which looked to define the most vulnerable population of sex workers: underage prostitutes. According to the study, "The typical kid who is commercially exploited for sex in New York City is not a tween girl, has not been sold into sexual slavery, and is not held captive by a pimp." The study found that 45% were boys, 45% got into the business through friends, 90% were U.S. born, most serviced white, wealthy men and struck deals on the street (as opposed to the Internet). Importantly, 95% of respondents—70% of whom had sought assistance through a child service agency within the past year—said they exchanged sex for money "because it was the surest way to support themselves." According to these researchers, even the most at-risk segment of the sex worker population—underage sex workers—are going it alone, selling sex on their own volition, and perceive themselves as making a choice given their circumstances. Only 10% were involved with what the researchers labelled a "market facilitator" (aka pimp).</p>
<p>For some, including the children met by the researchers behind the John Jay study, prostitution is a symptom of another problem that can take many forms: joblessness and poverty, lack of affordable housing, sexual abuse, mental abuse and trauma—problems more daunting than a boogeyman in a pimp hat. Yet, the myth that all sex workers are victims of traffickers or under the control of pimps still hijacks society's imagination. Sadly, this myth misunderstands not only the "victims" of prostitution but its "victimizers" as well—people who, as research reveals, are oftentimes one in the same.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>The origins of the word "pimp" reach back to the 17th century. </strong>It is believed to have come from the French infinitive "pimper" meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle "pimpant" meaning alluring in dress, or seductive. <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2008/02/a_history_of_pimping.html">According to Slate</a>, the term was introduced to mean, literally, "a person who arranges opportunities for sexual intercourse with a prostitute" and figuratively "a person who panders to an undesirable or immoral impulse."&nbsp;In&nbsp;<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Rebels-Culture-Politics-Working/dp/0684826399">Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class</a></em>&nbsp;Robin Kelley recounts the subtle and not-so-subtle but conscious acts of rebellion and resistance among a black working class, including the reclamation of the word "pimp" as a positive identity. Although African-American male culture is accredited with reclaiming the word in the 1970s, Kelley traces the celebration of the pimp to the zoot suiters and hipsters of the World War II era and the black male youth who sought alternatives to wage work and pleasure in music, clothing, and dance. Due to the unequal job market and lack of opportunities for men of color, some black men wholly rejected the work ethic of the era, favoring instead "a privilege of leisure and an emphasis on 'fast money' with little or no physical labor"—an ethic, Kelley writes, which "frequently meant increased oppression and exploitation of women, particularly black women."</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6035/6378883385_1f0c5e7958.jpg" alt="movie poster featuring a black man in a fur coat flanked by women called The Mack" width="200" height="300" />&nbsp; &nbsp;<img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6034/6378934983_4f8dacde86.jpg" alt="movie poster featuring a black man in a fur coat flanked by women called Willie Dynamite" width="200" height="300" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6054/6378935189_1d7558cfed.jpg" alt="Another, similar poster featuring a black man in a fur coat flanked by women called Willie Dynamite" width="200" height="300" /></p>
<p>According to Kelley, the connotations of sexism and exploitation in the movement obscure its oppositional potential, which are embedded, in part, in what Malcolm X deemed its "ghetto adornments"—zoot suits, flashes of wealth, and conspicuous consumption—visual protests adapted by a people struggling for economic power, and generational and ethnic identity.&nbsp;In the 1990s came a resurgence of the word amidst hip hop culture. The word came to represent a look and lifestyle of ease and privilege specifically available to the African American male, described as "living large." While the sexist overtones continued—the availability and exchangability of women meant one was "pimpin"—the origins of the movement remained legitimate. Pimpin' is a celebration of earning power, respect, and high social status available to young, black men. A pimp was well-appreciated and financially secure, qualities sometimes seemingly out of grasp for too many young black males.&nbsp;The rapper, Nelly, began to claim pimp as an acronym for "positive, intellectual, motivated person." He even created a college scholarship with the name "P.I.M.P. Juice Scholarship,"&nbsp;<a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-04-27/news/0504270140_1_rap-word-frat">a move that was met with controversy.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<div>"A pimp is a sleazy subhuman who exploits people, primarily women and girls, to enhance his own ego and coffers. He's an abusive predator," said the <em>Chicago Tribune's</em> Dawn Turner Trice. "You can't refashion such a misogynistic word and give it respectability."</div>
<p>"My mother doesn't understand how the word 'pimp' could ever be a compliment," <a href="http://community.feministing.com/2011/11/11/seriously-herman-cain-a-"pimp"/">Genie Leslie recently wrote on feministing.com</a>, "but for many of us under 60, we know that pimp is often used to describe something as cool, and when applied to a person (usually a man), it means that they've got game, they're good with the ladies, they date/hook up/have sex a lot."</p>
<p><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6033/6366230793_8e3e8c86b6.jpg" alt="Herman Cain depicted as a stereotypical pimp" hspace="10" width="263" height="249" align="left" />Without historical and geopolitical context, it is, indeed, hard to see what <em>any</em> words mean—particularly the word "pimp," which has been re-appropriated by young, white, middle-class men to embolden their manhood without them having endured any of the discrimination and criminalization historically suffered by men of color. Co-opted in this way, the word feels like an assault to women. It becomes a part of the white lexicon, an instrument of our further misunderstanding.&nbsp;Genie's piece, for example, was in response to a radio show host celebrating Republican candidate Herman Cain as a "pimp." At the risk of defending Herman Cain, a cursory Internet search reveals how Cain was characterized as a pimp well before any charges of sexual harassment came to light. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/06/13-herman-cain-hat-quotes_n_1078488.html?">White America's obsession with the hat he wears</a> and <a href="http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/national-review-cain-more-authentically-black-obama">conversations over whether he is more "authentically black" than President Obama</a> demonstrate our country's anxiety with the black male and our sad lacking of narratives describing black men in power other than with the label, pimp. Cain's <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/19/1038129/-Get-on-the-Cain-Train!-Cain-out-Palins-Palin,-Plagiarizes-The-Simpsons?via=sidebar">anti-intellectualism</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/15/herman_cain_doesnt_eat_sissy_pizza/">hyper-masculinization</a>—not to mention being the former CEO of a company whose name references organized crime—make him an even more perfect target for the moniker. Sexual harassment charges only reinforce the stereotype, reaffirming what we already seek to know about black men.</p>
<p>When we slow down to study our complex reality—particularly, when we begin acknowledging the<a href="/post/reflections-on-sex-power-and-speaking-the-truth"target="_blank"> intersectionality of race, class, gender and geopolitical location in the formation of identity</a>, we see that "evil" and "innocence" are not so "black" and "white."&nbsp;In a 2010 study conducted by DePaul College of Law, researchers interviewed 25 ex-pimps in the Chicago area, giving words and faces to the "sleazy subhumans" we call pimps. Over 75 percent of respondents were nonwhite. Interestingly, 28% were female.&nbsp;The sample reported having survived similar household characteristics typically ascribed to sex workers, <a href="http://newsroom.depaul.edu/PDF/FAMILY_LAW_CENTER_REPORT-final.pdf"target="_blank">leading the researchers to name their study <em>From Victims to Victimizers</em>.</a> Many of the self-identified former pimps had experienced physical abuse while growing up, including childhood sexual assault and domestic violence, and had witnessed drug and alcohol abuse in the home. Most described having grown up in neighborhoods where the sex industry was one of the only means of socioeconomic opportunities. For this reason, sex work was described by the researchers as a "family business." 68% had sold sex prior to themselves becoming a pimp.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Like the children involved in the John Jay study—who reported sex work as an alternative to homelessness or to dangerous foster care or shelter situations, and who cited economic desperation caused by no sources of income for the underaged—the ex-pimps in DePaul's study cited pimping as a means for survival.&nbsp;One man's story, according to researchers, illustrated a typical survival scenario. Having lived in four abusive foster care situatons, at age 16 he ran away from yet another a foster home to live on the street.&nbsp;"We [runaways] all hung out together," he said. "When [the girls] needed someone to watch their back or hold money for them it would be me. The next thing you know I was letting them live with me. Then I got involved with setting up the dates ...and checking out the johns... It was just business. It was a way of never being broke or poor again."</p>
<div>
<div>According to the DePaul study, many pimps believe themselves to be providing a service. According to the report, they were helping their "girls." The report says, "They were teaching [girls] not to give away their bodies for free. They were taking them from the gutter and feeding, housing, and clothing them. They were restoring power to them as well."&nbsp;Whereas the researchers described this as justification, concluding with a call for the end of demand of prostitution as the only solution for coercive facilitation and other abuses within the industry, I see better uses for this data.&nbsp;So might <a href="http://eminism.org/">Emi Koyama</a>, a social justice activist and board member of Survivor Project, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of intersex and trans survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.&nbsp;On her blog, Eminism.org, <a href="http://eminism.org/blog/entry/284">Emi Koyama boldly addresses the myth</a> that all sex workers work with market facilitators, as well as the myth that pimping is necessarily equivalent to sexual enslavement. (Emi also has an article in the current issue of <a href="/article/trade-secrets"target="_blank"><em>Bitch</em></a>.) She reports:"Media often depict people as "pimps" when they are arrested or charged with crimes of facilitating or promoting prostitution, but most of these people are not actually what most of us think of as pimps. They are often friends, partners, mentors, family members, photographers, drivers, bodyguards, and others who do not control the person trading sex in any way."</div>
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<p>According to Emi, while a pimp/worker relationship may be controlling, abusive and violent, it is more useful to consider its resemblance to marriages or other romantic relationships than to assume the old captive/captor trope. Sex workers are reluctant to leave violent or abusive relationships for the same reasons other victims of domestic violence stay. While this is sometimes because of fear, more often it is because the victim receives something from the relationship that her/his network or our greater society is otherwise failing to provide them. This includes material needs such as food and housing as well as emotional needs (when the abuse is in remission) such as protection, affection, validation and support. Also, notes Emi, like other victims of abuse, sex workers do not always leave abusive relationships because they love their abusers.</p>
<p>To quote Emi:<br />
<blockquote>I do not think that these relationships are unproblematic, or that violence and abuse should be tolerated just because the victims do when they can't control it. But there is a huge policy implication to recognizing agency and resilience among people who stay with their pimps instead of treating them as passive, powerless victims or "sex slaves."&nbsp;Efforts to unilaterally "rescue" these individuals take away their security and support, leaving them worse off than before (and still having to engage in sex trade to survive under less desirable circumstances).</blockquote></p>
<p>For some, it is a radical leap to think of sex workers as subjects that are in relationships with others. It is even more radical to begin to envision these "others" as human beings as well. When advocates are willing to do this, they will have caught up with sex workers, the population they are purporting to help.&nbsp;In my own experience as a researcher, I interviewed just one woman willing to say that she'd worked with a pimp. She described him first as a former boyfriend, whom she relied on for for financial guidance and protection, for which she compensated him monetarily. He was controlling, she said, and when he started to hit her she left him. "He's my ex-boyfriend now," she said. On afterthought she added, "I guess you could call him a pimp."&nbsp;</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-h-word-relationship-violence-and-the-racist-implications-of-the-mythical-pimp#commentslanguage reclamationmelissa petromythspimpprostitutionracismThe H-WordSex and SexualityWed, 23 Nov 2011 19:16:21 +0000Melissa Petro13731 at http://bitchmagazine.orgThe H-Word: Who You Calling a Hooker?http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-h-word-who-you-calling-a-hooker
<p><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6108/6306412947_5d0dcbc4d6.jpg" alt="" hspace="10" width="460" height="276" align="left" /></p>
<p>As important as it is for activists to establish sex work as work, it is equally important we acknowledge that not everybody who sells sex calls themselves a sex worker. As the current feminist debates about the Slutwalk march make all too clear, there is power and privilege in reclaiming a word and—like slut—to call oneself a "hooker" or even a sex worker is not everyone's preference, nor is it a privilege everyone can afford.</p>
<p><em><br /></em></p>
<p>For me, sex work did not start out as some big political statement. Sex work began as work.&nbsp;Sex work activism, on the other hand, began as "participant-observational" research—the only socially permissible way I knew for a sex worker-feminist to admit that she existed, let alone contribute to the conversation about women's participation in the sex industry (i.e., my life). The fall semester following <a href="/post/the-h-word-she-works-hard-for-the-money">my first experiences working as a stripper</a>, I began interviewing prostitutes and other sex workers across Europe and in the US. That research became my graduating thesis at Antioch College and was subsequently published in <em>Research in Sex Work</em> and<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Work-Matters-Exploring-Intimacy/dp/1848134347">Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power and Intimacy in the Sex Industry</a></em>. In the back rooms of brothels, I invited women to speak about themselves and their professions. I listened to sex workers define sex work as work, similar and dissimilar to other jobs. They told me what they liked about their jobs, what they put up with and how the money made it all worth it in the end. Importantly, not one of the women I interviewed referred to herself as a sex worker. They were "dancers" or "models," "entertainers" or "escorts." They stressed their education. Those who had "real" jobs were quick to speak of them. They described themselves again and again as "normal." Clearly, normal was how they wished to be seen, although they were happy enough to not be seen at all. All the women I spoke with preferred to remain anonymous rather than identify themselves publicly and put that normalcy at risk.</p>
<p>By positing their work as such, and by describing themselves as normal and focusing on their lives outside of work, the women I spoke to buffered themselves from the stigmatized identity imposed upon them by their professions. Ironically, by calling myself a "researcher" and adapting the politicized descriptor "sex worker," I was doing the same. Like the women I interviewed, I worked exhaustively to protect myself from having to think of myself or be thought of as a whore.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Nearly a decade later, "sex work is work" continues to be sex work activists' most important political claim. In an article by Melissa Gira Grant, "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/23/prostitution-sex-trade-demand-myth">Men buy girls, not sex, and other myths of anti-prostitution moralists,</a>" Grant challenges the notion that men buy actual people not a product skilled and marketed. She writes:<br />
<blockquote>It's tempting to imagine that sex workers will do whatever men pay them to do, and that sex workers exist to cater to male desire. What sex workers are actually selling is our ability to make our customers think they are getting what they want, and we try to sell that with as little strain on our time and our bodies as possible.</blockquote></p>
<p>Whereas some anti-trafficking activists believe that all sex workers are beholden to traffickers and pimps, sex workers themselves argue that they are beholden to no more than the same financial responsibilities as everyone else. Sex workers need money to pay babysitters and loan officers, landlords, grocery bills and car payments—demands no more excessive than what most working people struggle to meet.&nbsp;Without our input, even well-meaning feminists get it wrong, misplacing their energies supporting campaigns to shut down strip clubs, fine our employers, and censor cites like Craigslist and Backpage—efforts which only&nbsp;further hinder sex workers' labor processes.&nbsp;As activist <a href="http://blog.audaciaray.com/page/9">Audacia Ray</a> points out, the so-called advocates who devise these campaigns do a&nbsp;disservice not only to consensual sex workers—who, as Audacia says, are perceived as "an extreme minority whose opinions are irrelevant"—but to victims of trafficking as well (Audacia cites the <a href="http://www.sexworkersproject.org/publications/reports/raids-and-trafficking/">2009 Sex Workers Project report</a>)—evidence, in her eyes, that "most anti-trafficking campaigns are anti-prostitution campaigns full stop."&nbsp;</p>
<p>Like it or not, prostitution's not going anywhere. The economy being what it is, in fact, "the world's oldest profession" just may be becoming more popular than ever.&nbsp;Television shows like HBO's <em>Hung</em> popularize the idea that sex work is a viable option when&nbsp;a girl or guy's gotta do what a girl or guy's gotta do.&nbsp;The media, always slow to catch on, recently reported that the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/seeking-arrangement-college-students_n_913373.html?ref=fb&amp;src=sp">"sugar baby" phenomenon</a>&nbsp;is becoming a popular way for college women to pay off student loan debt.&nbsp;Even scientific studies are willing to concede that&nbsp;<a href="http://newswire.uark.edu/article.aspx?id=16181">affluent, educated white women</a>&nbsp;are choosing prostitution under certain circumstances (seriously?! who knew!?).&nbsp;</p>
<p>These stories are interesting, but ignore the fact that there has always been a class of women and men who would rather sell sex than be poor, as well as people who choose to engage in sex work for reasons besides those economic.&nbsp;As we see more and more white, educated, middle-class faces speaking out as sex workers and speaking up for sex workers' rights, we just may be willing to believe prostitution and other forms of sex work are "normal." But let us never forget that the sex workers who speak, and who call themselves sex workers, represent only a part of a whole—and let us never stop working to include, however possible, everyone else in the conversation.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6054/6306942258_a0b02a8b17.jpg" alt="Red and white sign that reads BE AWARE OF INVISIBILITY" width="480" height="313" /></p>
<p>So what do you call a sex worker if not a "sex worker"? The best answer I've heard was suggested by sexuality educator&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/09/20/word">Sarah Elspeth Patterson</a>: "If you are unsure as to what to call someone who works in the sex industry, ask them. They will tell you what they want to be called."&nbsp;When I was selling sex on Craigslist, I would never have referred to myself as a prostitute. Somewhat ironically, when soliciting clients I called myself a "non pro"—short for "non professional or "<em>not</em> a prostitute." As anti-sex worker as this reads to me today, this is how I marketed myself then. In an effort to be inclusive and to buffer the person we are labeling from that label's sting, prostitution is oftentimes referred to as "transactional sex." Sex workers are "people who exchange sex for something they need," including people who participate in street or informal economies. A campaign in Uganda calls it "<a href="http://www.yeahuganda.org/s-4-s-love/"something-for-something"-love-campaign.html"target="_blank">something for something love</a>." When I think of a sex worker, I might include anyone who has sex or is in a romantic relationship for reasons economic, or anyone who uses their sexuality to get what they need.&nbsp;With language this inclusive, sex worker activism escapes the trap of being considered the politics of individualism. It becomes easy to see how the work of sex worker activists benefits the poor and economically disadvantaged, although inclusivity works in both directions: with language this inclusive, it's hard not to concede that someone you know who you'd never think of as a "hooker" just might be a sex worker. Maybe that someone is you. &nbsp;</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-h-word-who-you-calling-a-hooker#commentsinclusive languagelanguage reclamationmelissa petrosex workstigmaThe H-WordSex and SexualityThu, 03 Nov 2011 16:15:29 +0000Melissa Petro13435 at http://bitchmagazine.orgPreacher's Daughter: A Word About Slutwalk, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Who Gets to Reclaim Racist Words and Traditionshttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/preachers-daughter-so-who-gets-to-reclaim-racist-language-and-traditions
<p>Full disclosure: I have had misgivings about Slutwalk from day one. "Slut" has never been a term used against me. Though the idea of reclaiming the word seems to resonate with many young, white heterosexual women, it is not clear to me how it's something that can unify <em>all</em> women. It felt <a title="&quot;Am I Troy Davis? A Slut?; or, What's Troubling Me about the Absence of Reflexivity in Movements that Proclaim Solidarity,&quot; Stephanie Gilmore at Racialicious" href="http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/11/am-i-troy-davis-a-slut-or-what%e2%80%99s-troubling-me-about-the-absence-of-reflexivity-in-movements-that-proclaim-solidarity/#disqus_thread" target="_blank">alienating and exclusionary</a> from the start.</p>
<p><a title="Racialicious post with photograph and commentary" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123652457" target="_blank">Last week</a>, one Kelly Peterlinz was photographed at Slutwalk NYC holding a sign made by Erin Clark reading, "Woman is the n****r of the world," the title of a song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Organizers asked Peterlinz to remove the sign, but the photos had already been taken. Thus began another debate about the word itself, in which <a title="Organizers' response to critiques " href="http://slutwalknyc.com/" target="_blank">Slutwalk NYC organizers</a>, along with Peterlinz and Clark, did the rounds, offering up torturous pleas that their <em>hearts</em> were in the right place. And anyway, <a title="See comments by Peterlinz and Clark in this thread at Racialicious." href="http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/06/slutwalk-slurs-and-why-feminism-still-has-race-issues/" target="_blank">Peterlinz and Clark maintained</a>, women <em>are. That word. White women even</em>. They are sorry if anyone was offended, but stand by their point about Class Woman.</p>
<p>Then, when <a title="Open Letter to Slutwalk, Sydette Harry" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/sydette-harry/an-open-letter-to-slutwalk/10150413913020937" target="_blank">Sydette Harry offered a trenchant and important critique of Slutwalk</a>, <a title="Jake Areyeh Marus, legal counsel, organizer and &quot;Intersectional Partner&quot; for Slutwalk Philadelphia." href="http://jamieboschan.com/intersectional_activism/2011/08/09/slut-walk-philadelphia/jake-aryeh-marcus-legal-counsel-for-slut-walk-philadelphia/" target="_blank">Jake Areyeh Marcus</a> of Slutwalk Philadelphia showed up to shame the Mean, Evil Women of Color who spoke out—and blame them for the emotional stress suffered by one of her fellow organizers. Yes, <em>really</em>.<em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p>For a word that isn't about us, we white people sure know how to keep ourselves at the center of the discussion, amirite?</p>
<p>All of this gnashing of teeth about whether or not white women get to claim the word, "n****r," as ours. Isn't that what this is? That is, a slightly more sophisticated take on the old question, "Why don't <em>we</em> get to say it if <em>they</em> get to say it?" Why do we feel entitled to dictate the terms of these debates? Do we, the beneficiaries of slavery, think—in spite of everything—that <em>we own</em> these racist words too?</p>
<p>Yesterday, Harry <a title="Follow-Up to Open Letter to Slutwalk, Sydette Harry" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/sydette-harry/followup/10150417725290937" target="_blank">wrote a follow-up</a> to her open letter. Noting that organizers with Slutwalk had not responded to her, she incisively wrote, "<em>My liberation is not glamorous enough, it seems, to be considered essential. However, it is intrinsic to yours. As long as there is a N****R of the world to be compared to, the treatment of that same will be, sadly, the measure of oppression</em>."</p>
<p>This dynamic—in which white people dictate the terms of the discussion <em>about</em> racism <em>to</em> black people—is not unfamiliar. <em>Come on</em>, we'll say, <em>don't you realize that we're all on the same side</em>? <em>Don't you know how it hurts my feelings to be called a racist?</em> So, in 2011, whites are still wrongly asking: To whom does racist history belong?</p>
<p>Maybe you've watched a similar dynamic swirl around an old-time band called the <a title="Carolina Chocolate Drops" href="http://www.carolinachocolatedrops.com/" target="_blank">Carolina Chocolate Drops</a>. Perhaps you heard Melissa Block wonder on NPR whether or not it's okay for the Carolina Chocolate Drops to reclaim so-called "<a title="&quot;Carolina Chocolate Drops: Old-Time Music With A Twist,&quot; NPR" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123652457" target="_blank">minstrel music</a>," never mind the actual origins of the banjo they play. If so, you know that classically trained singer, Rhiannon Giddens, actually had to say, "<em>Here's the deal. We play fiddles and banjos and we're black</em>."</p>
<p>It's a question that is never asked of the<em> many </em>white bluegrass and old-time musicians in North America. Nor was it asked of Feminist-Approved singer Michelle Shocked back <a title="Arkansas Traveler, Michelle Shocked" href="http://www.michelleshocked.com/detail_arkansas_traveler_reissue.htm" target="_blank">when she did an entire album based on minstrel song covers</a> in the early nineties.</p>
<p>We interrogate black people about the reclamation of language and tradition, but not ourselves. And we <em>certainly</em> think we get to reclaim racist history for our own liberation, as Michelle Shocked did and as protesters at Slutwalk have done.</p>
<p>Here is what Giddens has to say about reclamation in <a title="Carolina Chocolate Drops, &quot;Banjo Dreams/Jalidong&quot;" href="http://youtu.be/xJvqrHBG_6I" target="_blank">a powerful spoken word poem</a> from the Chocolate Drops' 2008 album, <em>Heritage</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>In my dream, history falls in on itself, and in my dream, there is no blackface, no misappropriation, no misdirection, no diasporic disconnect from the great hammering of our great-grandfathers' fingers. Instead, banjo sounds frequent the airwaves - like the most insidious hip-hop beat - spreading as dangerously as any soul clap, are sampled over and over until they become part until they become part until they become part of race memory... And in my dream—with our own black hands—we play, we pluck, we embrace what has always been ours to begin with.</p></blockquote>
<p>I'm not saying that white people can't do country, but I am asking: Which looks more like it glorifies the Old South, and which just looks like joy?</p>
<p>This song by <a title="&quot;Wagon Wheel&quot; lyrics" href="http://www.lyrics.com/wagon-wheel-lyrics-old-crow-medicine-show.html" target="_blank">Old Crow Medicine Show</a>?&nbsp;</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1gX1EP6mG-E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Or this?</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Egra25z7ya8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>I have not explicitly discussed spirituality in this post, though I hope the reasons that it fits in this series are implicit. These are questions that we ask of religion just as we ask them of culture: What exactly <em>is</em> my tradition? Can my tradition be reclaimed in a way that is liberatory rather than oppressive? And who do I need to be listening to to keep me from just stomping all over traditions and past injustices in ways that hurt people?</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eSHLXE-LHHo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>"<a title="&quot;I Know I've Been Changed&quot; lyrics" href="http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/tom_waits/lord_ive_been_changed.html" target="_blank">I Know I've Been Changed</a>"</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/preachers-daughter-so-who-gets-to-reclaim-racist-language-and-traditions#commentsblackfaceCarolina Chocolate Dropshyperwhitenesslanguage reclamationracismrapeSexual Violenceslut-shamingtraditionMusicTue, 11 Oct 2011 18:51:25 +0000Kristin Rawls13061 at http://bitchmagazine.orgA news story on the B word...http://bitchmagazine.org/post/a-news-story-on-the-b-word
<p>in which Bitch contributor <a target="_blank" href="/article/mommy-me">Veronica Arreola</a> defends the use of the word while many others disagree...</p>
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></embed></object>http://bitchmagazine.org/post/a-news-story-on-the-b-word#commentsbitchlanguage reclamationreappropriation of languagethe word bitchBitch on WheelsTue, 25 Nov 2008 17:32:27 +0000Debbie Rasmussen929 at http://bitchmagazine.orgOn the word bitchhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-the-word-bitch
<p>Over on the post that asks folks to <a href="/post/which-peta-campaign-do-you-hate-the-most-vote-now" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">vote for which PETA is most offensive</a>, someone says that by criticizing PETA, we at Bitch are just <a href="/post/which-peta-campaign-do-you-hate-the-most-vote-now#comment-574" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">calling the kettle black</a>. </p>
<div class="content">
<blockquote><p><i>Of course I'm offended by the PETA ad campaigns. As a long-time radical lesbian feminist, I abhor the explotation of the female body and the objectification of women as nothing more than sexual beings.</i></p>
<p><i>I would never give a dime to PETA even though I am also strongly in favor of the humane treatment of animals</i></p>
<p><i>However, how does its strategy of using &quot;shock&quot; to draw attention differ from your magazine? After all, isn't calling yourself &quot;BITCH&quot; simply a way to show how chic and clever and modern you are, how 'in your face' you can be, and how you like to flaunt convensional standards of language and cultural acceptance</i></p>
<p><i>The word bitch (unless applied to certain animals) has always been and is still a derogatory and borderline vulgar term for women. Old fashioned ideas? Sure. But so is not displaying naked women in suggestive poses just to sell products or ideas. </i></p>
<p><i>For &quot;Bitch&quot; to complain about PETA is disingenuous and hypocritical.</i></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p>I want to make clear up front that this post (as all of my posts) represents my own thinking, not necessarily the perspective of the organization... </p>
<p>The b-word is something I think about a lot in my work here at Bitch. All the time, actually. It's mighty strange to be the director of an organization whose title I'd long felt conflicted about (to clarify, I wasn't around when <a href="/about/founders" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lisa and Andi founded Bitch</a>). (To clarify futher, because I'm obsessive like that, I've never been conflicted about the work we do; only whether it's best to continue doing it under the name Bitch.) </p>
<p>It's not that I didn't understand why Lisa and Andi decided to call it Bitch. As Andi explained recently in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111601202.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Washington Post</a>: </p>
<blockquote><p>Bitch is a word we use culturally to describe any woman who is strong, angry, uncompromising and, often, uninterested in pleasing men. We use the term for a woman on the street who doesn't respond to men's catcalls or smile when they say, &quot;Cheer up, baby, it can't be thatbad.&quot; We use it for the woman who has a better job than a man and doesn't apologize for it. We use it for the woman who doesn't back down from a confrontation.</p>
<p>So let's not be disingenuous. Is it a bad word? Of course it is. As a culture, we've done everything possible to make sure of that, starting with a constantly perpetuated mindset that deems powerful women to be scary, angry and, of course, unfeminine -- and sees uncompromising speech by women as anathema to a tidy, well-run world.
</p>
<p>It's for just these reasons that when Lisa Jervis and I started the magazine in 1996, no other title was even up for consideration. As young women who had been bombarded with the word for, say, daring to walk down the street in tank tops, we knew what kinds of insults would be hurled when we started publishing articles on sexism<br />
in consumer and popular culture.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How can anyone argue with that? </p>
<p>My major hang up has been that I know many women who have visceral reactions to the word, sometimes because they've had it hurled at them in abusive relationships. Several months ago, for instance, a feminist therapist friend told me some of the people she works with said they felt assaulted in what was supposed to be a &quot;safe&quot; space when she left some issues of Bitch in the lobby. My heart sank when I heard this. </p>
<p>My other main hang up has been concern that, despite what I think is huge potential to work with youth around issues of media literacy and media criticism, our title will continue to be an obstacle in these efforts. </p>
<p>But the thing is, whenever I ask people if we should consider changing our name, almost without exception, I heard a loud, NO! Even people who work with youth, or who have children of their own, felt that our title is an essential component to our work. </p>
<p>It's not that we're trying to be clever, modern, or even necessarily 'in your face.' It's that we're trying to claim the word bitch as something smart, powerful, strong. And yes, show that being uncompromising and angry is not just necessary sometimes, but that it can lead to positive change. </p>
<p>In all honesty, it was only recently that the scales tipped for me, affirming in my own mind/heart the fight for the word Bitch. I was waiting to cross a busy street. On the other side of the street a boy chased another boy and yelled, &quot;Bitch!&quot; when he couldn't catch up. </p>
<p>They were probably 8 years old. The way he yelled Bitch was... I don't know how to explain it... ugly... aggressive... mean... he was clearly trying to yell the most hateful thing he could think of at the other boy. </p>
<p>And I don't know how to explain this either, except to say that I had my first visceral reaction to the word. Even though it wasn't directed at me, I totally understood what the fight was about. That the only way to de-charge a loaded word is to use it, reclaim it, (re)appropriate it. </p>
<p>I'm not saying it's not complicated, or that we shouldn't listen to the people who feel assaulted by the word, or give up on trying to work with youth when schools tell us that they won't allow the magazine on their grounds, but that I think this work -- including using the word Bitch -- remains just as critical now as it did back when Bitch was founded 12 years ago. </p>
<p>I'd love to know what others think. </p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-the-word-bitch#commentsbitchinclusive languagelanguagelanguage reclamationoffensive languageradical lesbianismreappropriation of languagethe word bitchBitch on WheelsTue, 12 Aug 2008 16:52:09 +0000Debbie Rasmussen642 at http://bitchmagazine.org